The Lake Monster
by Tavoriel
Summary: In which Jean tries to pull what MUST be a prank on Eren, but Eren decides he's not going to fall for it. Wait why did this turn into a Jean and Marco friendship story by the time it was finished? Not that I'm complaining...
1. Part 1

The sun has essentially set, and the 104th trainee squad is getting ready for bed, with their usual efficiency (they want as much free time as possible before lights out). Eren finds Jean waiting for him when he gets back to the bunk house. "Eren, did you hear?" Jean says loftily, and Eren stares him down, did Eren hear WHAT? "There's a _creature_ in the lake," Jean says, still lofty, though he is soon unable to keep eye contact with those glittering green little hate beacons. "A _new_ creature, or rather, an old one, left over from before the walls. There must have been a couple of them living in this area when the walls went up, some ones that got misplaced from where they normally live for whatever reason, and they've been trapped here ever since; this is probably the only one left. One of the upperclassmen told me all about it; he'd seen it several times. It's about the size of, well, YOU, and it's green and scaly and has spikes and a huge mouth with sharp teeth. It's like if lizards had titans versions, this would be it. It can eat PEOPLE like titans, too. I know you really like all that arbitrary stuff that's outside the walls, but I really _wouldn't_ check this out if I were you because it's really really dangerous, and if you die, well I just don't know who's going to join the Scouting Legion and kill all of the titans."

Eren is finished with his evaluation before Jean even stops talking; this can mean NOTHING good, this is obviously obviously OBVIOUSLY a dumb ploy to trick Eren into tramping around the lake chasing after something that isn't even real. How stupid does Jean think Eren IS? Clearly this is a trick, and just about the dumbest one EVER.

"Shut up, Jean," Eren says, and everyone goes to bed without further incident.

* * *

"So Armin," Eren says at breakfast the next day. "Do you know much about animals outside the walls?"

"I know some things," Armin says. "I don't have the book about the outside world with me now, so all I have to go on is my memory, unfortunately. I'm afraid I won't be much help. But what did you want to know?"

"Know of any animals that are like lizards, only bigger, about the size of a person, and have sharp teeth?" Eren asks, quietly and secretively, with a hint of disdain.

"Do you mean alligators...or maybe crocodiles?" Armin asks tentatively. "Both are large reptiles that live near water. Crocodiles have narrower snouts than alligators, and they have differences in what teeth stick out when their mouths are closed, and they have the ability to live in saltwater environments, but other than that the two are extremely similar. Depending on their size, they will eat other animals, like turtles or even deer. They eat by ripping off chunks of their food and swallowing it, without even _chewing_. They can lose teeth over their lifetimes and have new ones grow –"

"Wait," Eren says. "Did you say these things live near water?"

"Yes," Armin says. "Why?"

But Eren won't tell him. Jean is still lying. Jean has to be lying.

* * *

"So Jean," Eren says about three days later. He stops by where Jean is sitting, at the end of dinner, surrounded by witnesses. "This upperclassman you said who –"

"Not here anymore," Jean says in one breath, he KNOWS what this is about. "Phased out of the program. I'm really sorry. I was going to tell you before, that one time, but shut up means stop talking, sooo..."

"Wait…you don't think this is about your dumb _"lake monster,"_ do you?" Eren says, quickly backpedaling. "I wasn't asking about that, I KNOW that was a dumb trick to get me to go by the lake, I'm not STUPID. I was going to ask you something else, actually, but I think I'll just ask Armin because I just remembered, you're a jerk."

"I never said there was a lake monster," Jean says stuffily. "I mentioned offhand that someone else said there might be one. I can't believe you even remembered I said that… don't tell me you actually thought there was a monster in the lake? I've been to the lake a few times, okay, and I've never seen a thing, no prints, no bones, nothing."

"Shut up, Jean," Eren snaps. "Why are we even talking about this?"

"Well I just can't believe you'd be afraid to go to the lake because of some dumb hearsay," Jean says. "That's something I could talk about; it's pretty funny."

"I'm not afraid, I just don't fall for dumb tricks," Eren snaps.

"You know what, forget it; it's not even my business," Jean says. "You can be afraid, there's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm sorry for making fun of you for that."

Eren is mad enough to strike back but too confused to know how; he opens and closes his mouth.

"Jean, it'd be really great if you'd stop bullying our classmates," Marco says.

"Oh, well okay, looks like the Mean Police have reached the scene," Jean says, but half-heartedly; he doesn't want to fight Marco.

"Just drop it," Marco tells Jean. "Eren, he's just going to keep giving you trouble, so you might as well be on your way." His words are much bolder than the voice that carries them; he certainly doesn't look like he wants to fight Jean either, but some things just must be said.

If it were anyone but Jean, Marco could easily have made himself the next target after Eren skulks off, but it is Jean, and the two just finish eating in uncomfortable silence, not really sure what just happened there between them.

* * *

Two days later, and Eren and Armin are poking around the lake after dark.


	2. Part 2

Eren's told Armin everything he can remember of what Jean told him about the alligator or crocodile that PROBABLY DOESN'T live in the lake. Though Armin knows more than Eren does about these creatures, he still feels vastly unprepared to effectively track one.

"Their feet look a little like duck feet and a little like hands," Armin reminds Eren, showing him one of the rough drawings he made, again. "I don't know exactly how many toes they have, but this is a rough idea of what to look for, for tracks. As far as what to look for in the water, they can look a lot like logs sometimes, so don't rule out logs just at first glance. I don't… I don't know if they come out at night or during the day. I don't know how deep in the water they can go."

"Got it," Eren says.

"I wish I could be more help," Armin says.

"What? You're amazing," Eren says, a little surprised. In his eyes, Armin might as well have a PhD in Crocodilian Studies, how do so many facts even fit into one person's head?

"Shhhhh!" Armin says suddenly. Both boys freeze.

You have to go through the woods a ways to get to the lake, the lake is in the woods, Eren and Armin are in the woods now, and that was definitely a snapping twig. It doesn't take long before they're sure of what they're hearing: someone or something coming towards them through the trees.

Naturally, their first thought is of alligators and crocodiles, but second and third thoughts, fourth thoughts, more thoughts, quickly step in, bringing logic. The lake is very close, but the sounds are coming from the direction the boys came from. It sounds a lot more like a person than a low-to-the-ground, flat thing with four stubby legs, too. Were they followed? Are they about to get caught? Getting caught would be VERY BAD. Sasha had to run laps until she was uncomfortably close to death, just for eating a potato when she wasn't supposed to. To be out here in these woods right now, Eren and Armin are risking _pain._ Increasing the likelihood of being kicked out of the military, even, maybe? Eren can't remember exactly what happens to you if you get caught running around after dark, but he knows Armin surely must, and Armin looks scared silly.

"Eren, is that you?" says Jean's hushed voice, coming from the general direction of the walking sounds.

Oh.

OH.

Now Eren's just MAD.

"JEAN! Go to hell you pompous mooch muffin!" he hisses into the trees, betrayed, vulnerable, angry.

"Eren, it IS you! I'm so glad I found you!" Jean says, as if he hadn't even heard the insult. Does he sound worried? Relieved? What?

"There's two of us, Jean," Armin says warningly, as Jean finally emerges into the outskirts of their circle of lantern light, visible at last. Maybe Armin wouldn't be much use in a fight, but by simply being here he undeniably raises the number of kids on Eren's team to two, which technically makes Jean outnumbered, and that has to count for _something._ And Armin's ready to at least try and fight, as he always has been. Nobody's even given the slightest indication that violence will be forthcoming, but that's the kind of bullies Armin's used to, and he will never not consider a bully to be easily capable of violence, if not intending to be violent from the start.

"Eren," Jean says urgently, ignoring Armin and walking up to Eren, "I'm so glad I found you before you got to the lake. Don't go. Please don't go. _There really is something out there._ I brought it up because I thought it would be really ironic if you couldn't go check out something from beyond the walls but knew about it, ha ha ha, I wanted to make you frustrated. I never thought you'd actually go look for it, but please, you just can't, it's too dangerous. It was a lie when I said I'd been around the lake and hadn't seen anything. I never went near the lake after that upperclassman told me there was a monster there. He was really really serious about it. I may not like you, but I really don't want you to be dead. I'm risking getting caught here to save you; please believe me; please don't go near the lake, I'm really serious this time, you have to trust me."

He does sound pretty serious, but Eren doesn't trust him enough for that to even mean anything. At this point, all Eren knows is, there's only one way to find out whether or not there's a creature from beyond the walls in that lake, and that's to press on ahead.

"I'm done talking to you, Jean," he snaps, still hurting from being discovered, this is precisely why he went at night. He turns to continue along his way, towards the lake.

"EREN, NO," Jean pleads, grabbing for Eren's arm; before Jean sees it coming, Armin's smacked him across the face with a big stick, HARD. Jean shouts in pain and surprise, he can't help it.

The three of them freeze and look around the silent woods.

That was pretty loud.

"What the HELL was that for?" Jean hisses at Armin, finally, when hordes of upperclassmen with rulebooks fail to spring from the tree canopy on 3D gear.

Armin just looks stunned. He wasn't expecting to be able to hurt someone. He knows he's gotten stronger, what with all of the training he's been going through, but it's hard to view that in the context of better fighting ability. Armin doesn't win fights. Armin isn't threatening. Armin gets pushed around. Armin should run away or wait for Eren or Mikasa to help him.

Well, the training, and finding the stick was probably helpful, too.

"I said, what was that for," Jean growls, bending down a little, moving closer a little, threatening, and Armin backs up quickly, brandishing the stick – "Don't touch Eren, and don't touch me!"

"Armin was right, what he said before, you're outnumbered," Eren says, adopting a threatening pose of his own next to Armin, more than happy to turn this into a fight if that's how Jean wants it. He's a excited now; his opinion of Armin's usefulness in combat just went way up, and it's a little electrifying to be standing next to a decently competent ally and know the two of you can totally take out your opponent.

Jean mellows and backs up, looking conflicted.

"...Look," he says, putting up his hands in defeat, "I can't drag both of you back. If you have the nerve to be ready to beat me up for trying, I'm not gonna touch you, it's not worth it, I have a heart but I'm no saint. I'm warning you, though, DON'T go. I'm not being funny, there seriously is a monster at the lake, it can seriously hurt you, hitting it in the face with a stick isn't going to save you from _that_."

"I'll hit you in the face with a stick again," Armin squeaks, simultaneously terrified and elated, oh gosh, he and Eren could so take this kid, they really could, they really, truly could.

Jean backs up some more, bitter and a little alarmed. "FINE, go on ahead and get eaten, see if I care," he snaps. He still looks conflicted, though, like maybe he does care a little, and he doesn't go away.

What ends up happening is, Eren and Armin troop on forwards, and Jean follows them at a distance. By the time they get to the lake, Eren and Armin really are a bit creeped out. Jean's being awfully persistent and concerned for a prankster. It's very dark, and the shadows have a way of, sort of, becoming alligators and crocodiles. The boys have never even seen one of these things before, which makes it all the worse. How fast can alligators run? How fast can crocodiles run? Armin didn't know when Eren asked him. "Everything I know about them isn't useful," he'd complained. Eren had reminded him about the thing where crocodalligators or whatever didn't even chew their food, they just ripped it up and swallowed chunks, that was pretty cool, that was a good one to remember, Armin.

Speaking.

Of which.

WOW.

OKAY.

Okay.

ok

As the three walk around the uneasy waters, Jean kind of inches closer and closer to Eren and Armin, and his company becomes more and more welcome, and by the time they've been about a fourth of the way around he's walking right behind them and they're absolutely okay with it. At this rate they'll be holding hands at the halfway point. No, they don't hold hands at the halfway point, but it's about there that Armin starts telling Jean alligator/crocodile facts, in a hushed whisper.

That leaves Eren as the one who's paying the most attention to his surroundings.

That means Eren is the first one to see the pile of bones.

He freezes, and the others nearly walk into him. All he has to do is point.

Jean lightly takes hold of Eren and Armin's sleeves and starts to pull them away respectfully. Urgently so. Desperately so.

"Guys I'm scared," he breathes, "I'm really scared, please don't go any further, I don't want this on my conscience, I don't wanna be the kid who got two other kids to go die, I don't want to die, let's get out of here."

Armin and Eren pull their arms free, shush Jean, stoop to examine the bones. They are scared out of their minds, but this is getting good. Really good.

Then Armin GRABS Eren, points very urgently at the water.

A dark spot, about as long as Eren's forearm. A head. A reptilian head. Complete with beady eyes, a blunt, paddle-shaped nose, and a multitude of teeth poking out of a dangerous grin that can only mean death.

"That creature has teeth like a crocodile's, and _their_ noses are supposed to taper off, not be all wide like that," Armin says in a horrified whisper, eyes fixed on the reptilian apparition, still holding Eren very tightly, frozen to the spot. "This doesn't match the picture I saw of an alligator. It doesn't match the picture I saw of a crocodile either."

"…What?" Eren responds, in much the same tone, also staring at the head, likewise frozen to the spot.

"These bones have knife marks on them," Armin continues, in that same horrified whisper, a few seconds later. He's still looking at the head in the water about 70% of the time, but he's holding a bone now, one from the pile on the beach, and looking at that off and on, too. "They're too big for deer bones. Deer are the biggest things in the woods. I think they're cow bones. I think they came from the trash cans just outside the kitchen."

"...what?" Eren responds, in much the same tone, still staring at the head, still frozen to the spot.

And then Jean starts CRACKING UP, and Eren really does attack him.

Armin just kind of sits there on the pebbly little beach, deflated and sad and not really sure what to do and still pretty worked up. He's still glancing back at that head in the water now and then, he can't help it. The more he looks at it, the easier it is to tell that this is a handmade object, and not handmade by an artist, exactly. It's getting harder and harder to remember why he even thought it was real. Relieved as he is to not be in danger, he's bitterly disappointed. Alligators and crocodiles are extremely fascinating, and he's not going to get to see either one. Ever, probably. It was a cruel thing for Jean to prank them about.

It starts to dawn on him that Jean shouldn't know enough about alligators to make a replica of one or describe one when Eren and Jean scramble past him, on their way to the water, on Eren's way to the water, to dunk Jean's head in, and of course Jean is resisting, there's a lot of tussling and grouching, and Jean isn't quite finished laughing, either; their combined noise is actually pretty loud, considering how none of them want to get caught. On their way past Armin, Eren or Jean accidentally kicks him, then as he's getting out of the way his foot gets stepped on.

"Ouch," Armin says quietly, scootching a lot farther back. He realizes there's a chance he could cry and struggles to fight it.

He _really wanted_ to see an alligator. Or a crocodile. And now his knee hurts. And his foot hurts. And the other kids are fighting. And they're out by a creepy lake at night when he should be sleeping, everything looks unfamiliar, and they could get in trouble on the way back, assuming they find their way back, and this adventure will be paid for in sleep regardless of whether they get caught or not.

Suddenly, a yard or so away, there's a large, loud splash made by something very big.


	3. Part 3

(before we go back to the story I just want to let you know that you should definitely be imagining at least one of these dorks running around in pajamas and those huge boots that go with their uniforms, the mental image makes me smile and I wanted to share, kk as you were)

* * *

Jean is a cool person to hang out with when he's not being a jerk to other people, but he can be the biggest idiot sometimes. For the past few days it's been nonstop alligator jokes, within Jean's friends circle of cadets aspiring to join the Military Police, "When do you think Eren's going to go to the lake?" and did he think the upperclassmen just wouldn't overhear a word of it? Did he think they had the perceptive ability of bricks? Better keep quiet around Eren, but let's laugh our heads off in front of the people who can get you in trouble for this…? How's this all going to look when Eren gets caught and identifies Jean as having had a hand in this?

Marco is borderline terrified of the upperclassmen. Marco wants to be polite, Marco wants to do a good job, Marco wants to succeed in life, Marco wants to not get in trouble. The presence of watching, judging authority figures plays with his sanity just a little; of course he's going to be watching them back, paying attention to what they are doing, making sure they know he's on their side, that's why he's here, _he wants to do the right thing, he's not a mindless creature that has no respect for the rules, like they might seem to think all of their charges are; he comprehends and respects the hierarchy of things okay; dear everyone in charge, please believe that he is sentient._ But the hierarchy of things doesn't really seem to care. It doesn't even seem like they're even actually trying to get everyone to cooperate with them. They just seem to like to yell at people.

And Jean's not the only one who can be an idiot, okay; that Jaeger kid can be pretty successful at it too. Why does Marco know that tonight's the night he finally cracked and went to go check out the lake? Why does Marco know that Jean followed him, shortly after? Because Jaeger and Arlert only waited thirty minutes after lights out before they left, and Jean only waited ten after that. Top form secrecy right there. Good job, guys. Seriously.

And Jean, what were you THINKING. It's dangerous enough just talking about being a part of this nonsense. Why would you… it's SAFE in the bunkhouse… you're going to get in trouble _so fast_ if you go out there… why… WHY…?

Marco TRIED to stop Jean, okay, got out of bed and everything, in front of everyone. He should have stopped Eren and Armin, right from the start. He should have gone over and told them, a long time ago, that Jean had rigged something up by the lake and there seriously wasn't anything there. He's a soldier now, and will be for many years to come. Why isn't he braver? The world hasn't taught him to be brave, hasn't thrown him much by means of instant gratification; the effort's all been out of pocket, so far. And he already went and stuck up for Eren. He already feels out of place in Jean's friend circle. Everyone else seems to be attracted to the Military Police for very different reasons than Marco. He just doesn't fit in, he's homesick, this is the closest thing he has to a family right now, and he's probably going to get phased out of it sooner or later anyway. No one really cares about him, or even each other, it seems; they mostly just like to conglomerate and make jokes at other kids' expense…? No, Marco's not very brave, not brave enough to get up and stop this fiasco before it can happen to kids he barely knows, barely brave enough to try to save the kid he does know. He signed up for this career thinking he had aspirations, but now those aspects of his personality make him feel more like a big galumphing dumb that talks.

"Oh my _god_ Marco, go back to sleep," was all Jean said on his way out. In front of everyone.

And Marco had.

Only he hadn't been able to sleep.

And Jean hadn't come back.

And Jean hadn't come back.

And Jean hadn't come back.

Because Jean was out there getting in trouble because he was so proud of his dumb prank he couldn't bear to not see the result of it.

And Marco started to think about Sasha, running laps to the point of exhaustion for eating a potato at the wrong place at the wrong time. The consequences for this are not going to be light.

Marco wasn't about to leave for the lake too, but he couldn't stay in bed either.  
He ended up wandering over to the bathroom; he can't get in trouble for going there, and he just couldn't lay still in bed anymore, maybe a short walk is what he needs. Irrationally, he almost expects that Jean will be visible outside somewhere if he looks hard enough, but of course that isn't going to happen. Jean is long gone.

Well. As expected, Jean isn't anywhere in sight, but there are _definitely two upperclassmen hanging out a ways away from the bunkhouse, facing the direction of the woods and the lake._

Waiting patiently.

When they get back, Jean, Eren, and Armin are going to walk

_right_

into

that

If nobody warns them, that is…

Jean isn't Marco's best friend or anything, but it's not like anybody else is. Shallow as Jean can be, he's probably the closest thing Marco even has to a best friend right now. If it weren't for him, Marco wouldn't even have a group to hang out with. It started with, "Hey, you're headed for the Police too, why aren't you eating lunch with us?" and Marco hasn't been asked to leave the circle yet, so he's still there. Jean seems aware that Marco is a hefty shade more sheltered and polite than the others and seems to more or less accept and support him in this; meanwhile the others kind of ignore him if he's not actively involved in entertaining them. But lately Jean and Marco have been clashing. And… and what's going to happen if Jean gets caught, now? Marco will be proven right about the not-bullying-Eren thing and the not-going-outside-at-night thing. Decisively, and painfully. And other people will definitely recognize this; Marco did his arguing in front of the other cadets. Jean's already proven himself to be a bully. Marco's been getting a lot better lately at unlearning his capacity to trust. The road he's on looks like one that leads nowhere good. If they turn on him, they're not going to kick him out of the friends' circle. They're going to put him on the bottom and make him their laughingstock pet. Because they'll think he has nowhere else to go. And they'll be _right._

Marco really tried to get past the older kids unnoticed, okay. He kept on walking to the bathroom like he hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary, like nothing was up. After staying in there for a bit to give the older kids a chance to focus more comfortably on their vigil, he exited as quietly as humanly possible, kept sneaking along the side of the building, and somehow succeeded in placing the building in the middle of the line of sight from the older kids to him. Then he snuck around the building… and after all of that, all he gained was getting closer to the open area the upperclassmen are facing; he couldn't pass through there without being seen anyway. He hadn't…really...thought this through. Clearly this was a bad idea. And how to backtrack, how to return to the bunkhouse? _Oh no, someone else could spot him now._

So he stood there, silently imploding in misery, sure of being seen at any minute. What finally saved him (if you could call it that) was something he wasn't counting on. About thirty minutes later the older kids eventually noticed that hey, didn't someone wander over to the bathroom, and hey did they ever come out or…? It's past curfew, what… is he up to something? Hurting himself?

And two of them headed over to the bathroom, the two of them together because it's better to go in there outnumbering this unpredictable kid, to be on the safe side.

So Marco panicked and ran, in the direction of the woods.

And they must have heard him running because after a bit he heard them start to chase him.

That wasn't supposed to happen!

None of tonight was supposed to happen!

Why did he even start running, why not walk really quietly?

TOO LATE NOW OKAY!

And so Marco just kept running!

Past buildings made almost unfamiliar by darkness, then through the woods, and then through the woods even more, and then through the woods even more on top of that; he ran faster, and for longer, than he'd ever run before, and the air is shredding the back of his throat by the time he finally gets to the lake, he's beyond exhausted, he needs to stop but he CAN'T, he's much too scared, he's never done anything like this before, he's breaking the rules, _they're going to get him._ The sound of the upperclassmen running through the woods behind him has been getting continuously fainter; as pursuers, they can afford to expend less energy, and they have been. Still, he keeps running around the lake, as quietly and quickly as ever he can, running towards the commotion the other boys are making, he heard screaming? What's wrong? And his tired legs are just getting ready to coordinate a stop when he finally breaks that all-important no-tripping streak, too close to the edge of the lake, and suddenly falling and suddenly WATER, and the other kids are screaming again and he can hear people running as fast as ever they can into the trees.

Everything is pain, everything is water, nothing is breathing; after a moment's instinct-driven frantic scrabbling to get his head above water, Marco doesn't care about getting caught anymore, or the other kids getting caught, or anything, it's not worth it, he just doesn't want to have to move, they all ran away anyway. He has no choice but to violently cough up water, and it's hard to even process information much less priorities, through the pain in his throat, plus the pain everywhere else. If he gets in trouble, Jean can't hate him for being a pretentious little killjoy. His problem's already solved. All he has to do now is pay for it. His fate is acceptable, sealed; he will wait.

_"…Marco?"_

Jean's voice! _No Jean, it's not safe!_ Marco drags himself out of the water, makes wild hand motions at Jean, meant to shoo him towards the woods. Jean does not run for the woods but instead arrives just in time to stop Marco from falling over. Okay, but running into the woods is still a very important next step, and Marco continues to communicate that; they hurry into the trees together, Jean supporting Marco even though it's getting him half soaked.

"Are you _okay?_" Jean wants to know. "What's wrong?"

"There's upperclassmen coming, they followed me, they were waiting for you guys and I had to try and warn you, I didn't mean for them to chase me I'm sorry I messed up," Marco wheezes, and his throat pays for every word.

"Holy hell," Jean hisses back, horrified; his whole demeanor changes, his pace changes a little. "Marco! What's wrong with you?"

"I was running…" Marco whispers, lamely, apologetically. He isn't exactly finished coughing up water, and he instinctively holds Jean more tightly for the next few hacks.

"No, no," Jean says quickly, "I know, you're worn out, it's okay; I meant, why would you _do_ something like this, why come after us?"

And Marco can't answer, he just has this sense of having, yet again, done something wrong somehow. He's warned his leader, shown his loyalty, of course it probably isn't satisfactory, but… please let it be enough. Everything hurts, and Jean's going too fast; Marco tries to pull away, he's maybe going to faint or throw up if he doesn't stop soon; all Jean gets in response is, "I'm sorry, I can't keep up, just go."

_That_ gets Marco pushed into a tree and held there, what, what, what, what did he do, what did he do, help, it still hurts to breathe, ugh he's still really wet, the lake reflected moonlight very nicely, but it's so dark in the woods he can barely see anything; it's more than a little scary out here; how did he even make it to the lake. Is Jean going to hurt him?

"If I make stupid, cruel mistakes. You. Don't. Pay for them," Jean says.

Marco can barely see his face, but his voice is a maze of shame, humility, pity, guilt, resolve…fear. Concern. This is the same kid who basically fed Eren his hopes and dreams in the form of ground up glass and laughed at him for choking on it, but to hear him now you really wouldn't know it. Marco's never seen Jean like this before. Jean what? "Take a rest, try to get back without getting caught, I'll give them something to do," Jean continues, with an air of authority Marco's never heard from someone his age. And Jean turns around to jog back. And all Marco can do is sort of, slide down the tree a little, he really is going to throw up? He can still taste lake water…urgh, no, think about something else… Jean WHAT? What just happened? Jean's mad at him? Jean isn't mad at him? Is throwing up going to happen or not going to happen? Is Jean mad? Jean's not mad? Jean is going to get caught? Jean… Jean cares? Wet, soaking, cold. The tree is hard; the bark is rough; sliding is unpleasant, but a more favorable alternative fails to present itself.

And then seconds later, before Jean's had a chance to get very far at all, they hear more screaming from the lake.

This is really getting kind of ridiculous. There isn't even an alligator.

* * *

Eren, Armin, Jean, and Marco stare out over the lake, at the fake alligator head. The bones on the beach have been disturbed from their casual heap by one of the older kids stepping on them.

The head bobs up and down in the water, visible by the moonlight reflecting off the water. Its grin looks like real satisfaction for what it's just done.

"I'm sure the upperclassmen overheard Jean and everyone talking nonstop about a lake monster," Marco says, with what's left of his voice. "Then when they got here, they actually found what looked like a monster."

"They heard fighting and screaming," Armin contributes excitedly. "And then they heard that big splash from when Marco fell in."

"Oh my GOSH," Eren breathes, trying to keep a straight face. "OH MY GOSH."

"SERIOUSLY?" Jean breathes, failing to keep a straight face.

Soon everyone is in stitches, only Marco is stitches strictly because of running and isn't exactly in a laughing frame of mind at the moment.

"They're going to come back to investigate this, for sure," Armin says. "Let's destroy all the evidence so they have no idea what even happened. As long as no one admits to setting this up or going over to the lake at night, their own terror should stop them from pressing the issue. They'll be too busy questioning their sanity. That will greatly reduce our likelihood of getting in trouble."

This is the most casually Jean's ever heard someone propose to enact psychological horror on another human. And when Jean acted just the slightest bit threatening this kid hit him in the face with a stick so hard it's still sore. _Armin Arlert, what happened to you? What did life teach you? What past do you harbor behind those sharp, soulless, intelligent eyes?_ Jean's impression of Eren as an easy target is dropping steadily. There's already Mikasa, scarf-wearing terror and goddess… Armin's scary too? And Eren himself wants to kill all of the titans with his bare hands. What even are these kids? Jean can only watch as Eren and Armin collect the bones and throw them into the lake; can only watch as Eren wades out, comes back with his beautiful art project, and destroys it, throwing it back into the lake piece by splintered piece.

"Did the upperclassmen catch sight of Marco, ever?" Armin asks. "Could they identify him from what they saw?"

"N-no, I don't think so," Marco says, a little put off that the question wasn't addressed directly to him, who else is supposed to be able to answer that?

"Well then nobody will have a reason to question him," Armin says, "and we won't have to worry about him being too honest back. I'm not sure how well he could hold up if they asked him, even if he was trying."

Eren nods; makes sense. Marco looks at them and then at Jean, and Jean pats him on the shoulder with a funny smile that says don't worry about it.

_Okay._

"We should head back while the upperclassmen are still confused," Jean says.

"Remember everyone, this never happened," Armin says, looking at Marco.

"Yeah," Eren says, looking at Marco.

"We shouldn't even talk about it," Armin says, still looking at Marco.

"Yeah," Eren says, also stil looking at Marco.

"Hey," Jean warns, concern about getting caught is understandable but this is a little excessive; "Marco saved us all, maybe try and show just a little appreciation, like, _between the cracks_of treating him like a loser?"

"He's gonna undo all of that if he talks, though!" Armin says.

"Yeah," Eren says. "But thanks, Marco!"

"Thanks for what?" Marco snaps at those two. "I saved Jean."

"And if you say anything you're going to un-save him," Armin says, and he sound so serious and earnest, _I'm not saying anything mean I am a cute little boy_.

Marco doesn't have the energy or the wits to answer back right now with anything more than a glare. Apparently he's doing the thing where he doesn't fit in again, they can tell he cares too much about the rules again, nobody cares about the rules, not _really_, only Marco, Marco will never belong…

"You're right, Armin!" Jean barks. "Nobody associates Marco with this fiasco. THAT means I could take down the three of us without worrying about him getting in trouble at all, if I wanted to. And my pal Marco has got a reputation as a goody two shoe—as pretty well-behaved, so who's going to believe you if you say he was involved? I'm a big enough boy that I can take the beating I deserve when I screw up. Sure I don't want to, but I'm not scared, either. You'd do well to remember that. I've got dirt on you, kid."

Armin looks a little shaken; looks to Eren for support, then back to to Jean. "Okay," he says, with much less confidence.

"Yeah," Eren says guardedly.

"Do what you want, Marco," Jean says tiredly, "What I did was wrong, I don't care anymore, just don't come after me again if I ever do anything else that stupid, ok? If I'd 'a known you were gonna be dumb about it I would've listened to you."

"Let's just go back, I want to go to sleep," Marco says, agitated; clearly this is a really big and sticky moral issue they're tramping all over, how is he supposed to have a fully formed opinion and plan of action just like that, instantaneously; he doesn't owe anyone an explanation, they're the ones who ran out at night in the first place.

Marco ends up getting his wish about sleep; they make it back to the bunkhouse undetected.

"What happened?" Connie whispers eagerly as they troop in. "Was there a monster?"

"Go to sleep, Connie," everyone says.

* * *

Marco ends up not telling anyone. No one asks him, and he doesn't volunteer information. Armin's trick was a little cruel, but… Marco was wrong about Jean. VERY wrong. Jean kind of, isn't a person who Marco could turn in lightly, it turns out.

Jean honestly doesn't know whether to expect consequences or no consequences, he doesn't know _all that much_ about this Marco kid, really, but after a few days go by and nothing happens he realizes he'll be safe. And realizes he's made a friend. It's an odd realization. Marco was only supposed to be the shy kid hanging around the Military Police hopefuls. He was supposed to be a member of Jean's audience. He was competition for a spot in the top ten, kept where Jean could watch him. He wasn't supposed to be a friend. Not this kind of friend. None of them were. And then Jean goes and screws up, and Marco puts himself in harm's way to help Jean… didn't you see what kind of a person Jean is? How do you look at someone like Jean and go, "I dunno I just feel inspired to save him from his own stupidity"? Is Marco just lonely, or…? He was all worked up over _something._ Maybe Marco's the kind of person who needs saving every now and then, but from his own innocence and willingness to care. That's the kind of person you get inspired to look out for. This arrangement should be going the other way around. Stupid galumphing freckled dumb that talks.

Armin never did get to see his alligator, but by asking the right questions to the right people he did end up discovering where Jean found out that alligators existed: one of the kids in Jean's friend circle has a book about the capitol behind Wall Sina, the place where all of them are clamoring to live, and one of the museums the book talks about has a collection piece that's an old bag made out of what's thought to be real alligator skin (and of course the book had to say what alligators were to explain the significance of that). This wonderful incredible object is_right in the capitol, able to be viewed_; Armin could theoretically see it, stand a few feet away from it, the whole deal, it's _real_, it's _reachable_. Armin doesn't know when, or if, he'll ever get to visit the capitol. But the kid who owned the book let him borrow it, and Armin's been able to read about all kinds of new things. Then he gets to tell Eren the coolest of the things he reads about, and Eren invariably invariably thinks that these things are WOW SUPER COOL. Eren doesn't read for pleasure nearly as much as Armin does, but they have an unspoken system where Armin tells Eren the coolest things he comes across in his books. No matter how disinterested Eren may be in actually reading, he invariably finds what Armin chooses to share fascinating.

Eren doesn't really get anything major out of the adventure. His worldview is kind of built around rolling with, or fighting, whatever shows up to hurt him; this whole deal was another chapter, with plenty of rolling with and plenty of fighting. He and Armin conquered this okay, and he's ready for more. He's glad that Armin got better at fights and found a book to be happy about. He's relieved that Marco came to save them, and that Jean turned a little nicer once Marco showed up. He's pretty happy that Marco decided not to tell on them. He's very satisfied that Jean would admit that pulling this prank was a mistake… he hasn't gotten a direct apology, but he wouldn't expect one, and he wouldn't trust Jean to be sincere no matter what, anyway. He'll take what he can get. The important thing is, he's still alive to join the Scouting Legion and participate in eradicating the titans, finding out what they are, building a world where people like Armin can go hunting for real alligators to their heart's desire.

As for the rest of the cadets, ghost stories about the Lake Monster are only just getting started and probably aren't going to go anywhere in a hurry. The officers have no idea why everyone's scared to go by the lake all of a sudden, and nobody will tell them; meanwhile, the alligator keeps getting bigger and bigger with every retelling. By the time Eren and his friends graduate, the Lake Monster is established lore among cadets, which, okay it doesn't matter what side of the prank you were on, being part of the secret behind something this big feels amazing. Every once in a while people will be talking about the Lake Monster, and Eren and Jean will be in the same room, and the brief look that passes between them will almost be friendly.

The end


End file.
